Welcome to Indigo Inklings. This is where I talk about some of my rubber stamping projects and digital graphics. My blog name comes from the fact that I love the color indigo, and I think the notion of inklings covers my introspective side as well as my love for getting inky with my projects. I hope you find something here to interest or inspire you.

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Sunday, August 02, 2009

some Scor-it ruler how-to's

I've been asked by some readers to give more details about using the Scor-It ruler. I love this accessory, so I'm happy to oblige.

That's my 12" Scor-It, the Scor-It ruler, and three pieces of 4 X 5" card stock since that's what I had handy.

The ruler is great for making diagonal scoring a lot easier, so let's start with diagonals and some designs that can be made with diagonal scores.

Up above I've lined up my card stock so that I can make my first score from corner to corner. Yes, you can make this first score easily without the ruler. It's the scores that follow that are made easier.

In this photo I've moved the corners (ends of my scored line) to the 1/4" marks--I moved the bottom to the right of the zero centering mark and the top to the left of the centering mark.

Now I've made my second score and am getting ready to make the third. I've rotated the card stock just a bit more so that the corners (ends of the scored lines) have moved to the next 1/4" mark on the rulers.

And here it is one more time, moving at 1/4" intervals. The ruler is great because you can quickly and easily see just how and where you need to position your card stock so that the score will be exactly where you want it to be. The fact that the ruler can slide up and down the board makes it easy to position it so that you don't have to guess or eyeball where the scored line may end up. You just slide it to where it needs to be.

That's a quickie demonstration of what Scor-It describes as the starburst pattern on their site.

Here's my twist on their pattern. Using the same card stock (no need to waste, eh?), I made my corner to corner diagonal score to start out.

My apologies for the funky lighting in this one. I was just trying to show that I scored at 1/2" intervals this time.

Now for my twist: I've flipped my card stock over and started scoring in between my 1/2" scores. That is, I'm scoring at the 1/4" marks.

Here I'm showing a few more of these scores, lining up the ends of the score lines with the appropriate marks on the rulers at the top and bottom.

One last score, just for effect.

And here's the end result when you alternate scoring from the front and from the back. Gives a fun twist on the original starburst look.

I also made some light beam scores on a card. Here's how I accomplished that. Again I started with the corner to corner score.

This time I kept the end of the score line at zero up top and moved the bottom to the 1/4" mark.

Keeping the top at zero, I continued scoring at 1/4" intervals along the bottom, moving my card stock and ruler as needed.

I made all of these scores from the front, but you could alternate these, too, for a slightly different look.

Here are those light beams.

Diagonals are quick and easy. I started at the corners and then just moved my card stock, scoring at 1" intervals. I think you can see how easy it is to line up the ends of the scores with the rulers.

Here I gave the card stock a quarter turn and started scoring in the other direction at 1" intervals.

Here it is with more of the scores done.

And this is how it looks when you've made those scores.

But wait! You can still have more fun with this.

Here I flipped my card stock over and started scoring at the 1/2" marks.

And after making all of those scores, this is how the card stock looks. It's a fun diagonal grid pattern, but with the added twist of having embossed as well as debossed scores.

The nifty thing about using the ruler is that you can score at whatever interval you want. I made all of these scores at regular intervals, but you can certainly score in a less regular pattern and create a plaid look. You can also create scored frames. Because to make a decorative embossed score you score with the top side of your card stock facing you, you can also score designs around a stamped image. Lots of possibilities!

I hope this helps show just how this ruler makes decorative scoring a lot easier. :-)

The Scor-It ruler is made to fit the plastic 12" Scor-It board. The Scor-Pal is about 1/2" wider than the Scor-It. I won't say that the ruler can't be made to fit. It's metal and can be bent to a certain extent, but I think that to make it fit the Scor-Pal would mangle it fairly badly. Also, part of what makes the ruler so useful is that it pairs nicely with the ruler at the top edge of the board. That wouldn't be the case with the Scor-Pal which doesn't have the zero centering mark or all of the fractions of inches marked across the top the way that the Scor-It board does.

Happy to help, Nancy. I feel like I've only scratched the surface when it comes to making decorative scores with the new Scor-It ruler. It doesn't get much better--the Scor-It has always made the most gorgeous score lines to begin with, very crisp and very deep, then add all of the possible fun patterns to that and you get a winner of a product! Loved my Scor-It before, love it even more now with the addition of the ruler. :-)

Thanks for visiting my blog and for taking the time to leave a comment. :-) Don't be surprised if your comment doesn't show up right away. Because of the amount of spam being posted these days, I've switched things over to moderated. Legitimate comments will be appreciated, approved, and published in a timely fashion.

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About Me

I'm a midwesterner who loves to read and garden. I grew up in Missouri and am still there some forty odd years later. I've been married to a wonderful guy for 22 years and am a stay-at-home Mom to two girls, who keep me on my toes while they dance on theirs. My current interests include digital photography and digital graphics, in addition to rubber stamping and card making. I also have a two year old buddy who keeps me company while I do all of this.